UP IN SMOKE
AUSTRALIA’S BEST TYRE-FRYERS GOT WILD AND FREE IN THE NT FOR THE RED CENTRE NATS BURNOUTS
WITH Red Centrenats allowing a bunch of normally extremely illegal blown and injected burnout cars to cruise the streets of Alice Springs, it was easy to forget that a lot of those cars were actually there to compete in the burnout competition; being able to drive to and from Mcdonald’s as much as they pleased was just a bonus.
The burnout comp for RCN #2 kicked off on Saturday arvo, and I tell you what, for a show held in the middle of nowhere, the quality of the field was mind-blowing. Even in the non-burnout Masters comp there was Tom Beltrame in the INFERNO Land Cruiser, Mark Johnson’s cool WHYNOT Rodeo, Darren Triffett in his blown and injected VH Brock tribute, and Sam Surace in his new MADSAM Ford Capri.
Red Centrenats was MADSAM’S burnout comp debut, but it almost didn’t happen! Seems Sam had so much fun cruising around Alice in the 408-cube blown and injected Capri that he ended up burning through all the methanol he brought with him in one day. Luckily there was a guy in town that runs a funny car out at the drag strip and he had some fuel that he didn’t mind passing on to Sam.
For his first-ever competition skid in the Capri, Sam took Ben Nogas (son of Steve of KILLAB fame) on board for what was a pretty wild ride. “I thought we were going straight on when Sam tipped it in and backed off the gas; I quickly told him to get on it and we were good from there,” Ben laughed.
By the time it was Tom Beltrame’s turn in the wild little FJ40 Land Cruiser, we were deep into the night with barely a gust of wind around. That made navigating the burnout pad very tricky, and Tom was one of a handful of guys that got lost in the smoke and had to stop mid-burnout. One of our cameras was on board with him at the time and picked up his running commentary: “I can’t see anything; I’m going to have to back out of it.” A few moments later: “I think I’m in the middle of the pad – shit, I am too!”
Then it was time for the Burnout Masters to take over the show, and it was carnage! Michael Cleary broke the steering in GMHAZD; Jeremy Bond had a small engine bay fire with V8 Supercars driver Jason Bright on board; Russell Harris’s L005E VL Commodore stopped mid-skid, as did Kynan Hall’s PSYCLONE Falcon coupe. Andrew Lynch and the LYNCHY Corolla were nowhere to be seen. Lynchy broke his tailshaft cruising, and while he quickly repaired it for his practice skid, it didn’t hold together.
On Sunday, any of the Burnout Masters guys that didn’t make the Top 10 were able to join the regular Burnout Championship. Dave Cufone was one of those guys, and he came out in the blown and injected 1FATRAT Chevelle and did one of the best burnouts of the entire weekend. The way he was able to run up the entry road and turn the thing on a dime was insane! He ended up taking home first place.
In the Masters it was a close race between Darran Williams in his DIESEL blown Falcon ute, Rick Fuller in LSONE and Andrew Pool in IBLOWN; all three guys did seriously good skids and had trouble-free weekends. Last year’s winner Fred Watson had no such luck this time around, his FEAR Monaro stopping mid-burnout, while Steve Nogas’s KILLAB Camaro shredded a blower belt.
Ultimately West Aussie Darran Williams was the stand-out, taking home first place and a ticket to the Summernats 30 Burnout Masters comp. He was followed by Rick Fuller in second and Andrew Pool in third.